A computer has bested humanity at one of the most complex strategy games ever devised.Researchers at Google have developed a program that can excel at the game of "go," which originated in China and is considered a tougher problem for a machine than other strategy games such as chess. The program has defeated the European champion of the game. Now its developers say the same technology may be used to conquer problems in everything from medicine to climate modelling.A paper describing the program appears today in the journal Nature.The game of go began in China more than 2,500 years ago. Players use white or black stones to attempt to fence off territory. Players win by both cordoning off the largest area and encircling the maximum number of their opponent's stones."It's a very beautiful game with extremely simple rules that lead to profound complexity," says Demis Hassabis, a researcher with Google Deep Mind, which developed the new program. The number of possible board positions is
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